A founding member of 1949 and a permanent seat: France in NATO and the UN Security Council

Background

When France signed a defence agreement with the United Arab Emirates and joined a coordinated oil stock release with the G7, it was acting through memberships that exams test directly. France is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, listed with China, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States; ten other members are elected for two-year terms. France is also a founding member of NATO, which came into being when twelve countries signed the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949, and the Alliance now has 32 member countries. French participation has not been continuous in form: in 1966 President Charles de Gaulle took France out of NATO's integrated military command structure, and France announced it would again take full part in those structures at the Strasbourg/Kehl Summit. Even so, France has chosen not to join NATO's Nuclear Planning Group. Together with its European Union membership and its seat in the G7, these are the four forums through which French foreign and defence policy usually works.